On Edge
by NerdyMJ
Summary: Mia Blake is a reformed party girl from a dysfunctional family with too much on her plate. Like an ex that just refuses to take a hint and a special needs younger sister that's obsessed with mutants and monsters. But after an encounter with the Turtles, Mia finds herself pulled into their dangerous world and begins to wonder what will become of herself and her family because of it.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own TMNT.

Summary: Mia Blake is a stressed out, reformed party girl from a dysfunctional family with too much on her plate. Like school finals, an ex that just refuses to take a hint, and a special needs younger sister that's become obsessed with mutants and monsters. But after a chance encounter with the Turtles, Mia finds herself reluctantly pulled into their dangerous and begins to question. Then everything goes wrong. Set in the 2012 Turtleverse after the first Kraang invasion.

On Edge

01

The last bell of the day had just sounded and sixteen-year-old Mia Blake stood in the hallway of Theodore Roosevelt High School, pretending to listen to what her friends were talking about. She stared at her boyfriend, Troy Evans, silently, trying to figure out how she was going to tell him that she didn't want to be with him anymore. The list of reasons why were endless – he hid his cigarettes in her locker no matter how many times she told him not to, he flirted with other girls, he didn't care about her family, they had nothing in common, and above all else, Mia was tired of getting in trouble because of _his_ recklessness. But all those reasons why she didn't want to be with him after two years were the exact reasons that he would use against her, she knew that. Now, after a week of formulating the perfect break-up strategy, Mia finally knew what to say that would end their relationship once and for all.

"Hello, Earth to Mia!" Troy waved his hand in front of her face, breaking her train of thought.

"Huh – ?" Mia looked up at him, startled. "Yeah?"

The rest of the group laughed at her cluelessness. Troy smiled and shook his head. "Maren is having a party tonight," he said. "There's going to be vodka and stuff. You want to come?"

Mia shook her head. "I have to watch my sister," she said. "You know that."

"Yeah," Troy said, "but you watch her every night. Can't you get a sitter or something?"

Mia laughed in disbelief. Where had he been – had he seen her life lately? "As if we could afford one," she said somewhat bitterly. Her smile faded and she looked up at him. "Look," she added, "could I just talk to you alone for a sec?" She pulled her phone out and checked the time.

Ten minutes left.

"Course you can," Troy said and he led her down the hallway to slightly more deserted part of the school. "What's up?" he asked her, glancing back at their friends.

Mia sighed and said, "Look, I don't know if we should do this anymore – "

"Do what?" Troy said, looking up at her and cutting her off. "Go out – have fun?"

Mia searched his expression, calculating, but she couldn't tell what he was feeling. That was something about Troy that had pulled her in the first time: He was completely unreadable and totally unpredictable. "No," she said after a moment of silence. "No, if you want to go out, that's your business. What I'm talking about is – "

"Is what, Mia?" Troy said, and suddenly she could hear the anger in his voice. See it in his face. The mask was off. "What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about us, Troy!" Mia said, feeling both aggravated and intimidated by him. She knew she couldn't let that get in the way, though. She had to do this. It had to be done. "I don't think we should try to have a relationship anymore."

Troy shook his head. "Oh, geeze," he groaned in disbelief. "You mean, like, a romantic relationship?"

"I mean, like, any kind of relationship," Mia told him. "I'm tired of pretending to fit in with you and your friends. I don't have anything in common with any of you anymore and I'm tired of the trouble you cause."

"So you're breaking up with me?" Troy asked her. "Because I cause trouble because, you know, you used be something a rule breaker yourself, Mia. You used to be fun, too, you know."

The alarm on Mia's phone went off. It was three-ten. She looked up at him and shrugged. "Yeah, well," she said, "I grew up. That's life." She turned and started to walk away, but by the time she had reached the front steps, Troy had already caught up with her.

"Wait a minute, wait a minute," he said and he stepped in front of her, walking backwards down the sunny NYC sidewalk. Mia rolled her eyes. "We've been together too long for me to just give up this easily," he said. "I mean, you can't just break up with me at the first sign of trouble. There has to be another way to fix this."

Mia scoffed and pushed past him. "I've been waiting two years for you to fix things, Troy," she said, looking at him over her shoulder. "Two years. Do you have any idea how _long_ that is for a girl in high school? How _not_ normal that is?" She turned away from him and started off down the sidewalk again. Then she paused and added, "And believe it or not, all you've managed to do is make things worse between us."

Troy reached out and grabbed her by the arm, forcing her to pause and face him. They both knew she couldn't get out of his grip. "That's fair enough," he said, nodding. "So just answer me this one question – " She groaned loudly, cutting him. "Just one question, Mia!" he went on, talking over her. He waited until she was silent. "Do you still find me attractive?"

Mia stared at him in disbelief. "What?" she said, laughing. "Are you kidding?"

"No, I'm not kidding," Troy said, scowling. "Now, just shut up and answer me."

"Fine." Mia shrugged. They both knew the answer: If there was one thing Troy had, it was looks. He had big blue eyes and wavy brown hair that framed his square jaw in just the right way at just the right angle. "You're cute, okay?"

"So," Troy said. "You think I'm attractive?"

Mia frowned. "Well, I mean, you're not unattractive –"

"That means you still like me," Troy said, smiling. "And there's no reason for us to break up then. We can work things out." He kissed her on the cheek and ran back inside the school to where their friends.

"Wait!" Mia called after him. "Troy, that's not what that – oh, my god! I'm going to kill him!" But, at the moment, she had other things to worry about.

* * *

><p>Mia's six-year-old sister, Clara, was small and mousy-haired like their older sister, Janie, with blue eyes. Right after Clara had been born, their mom had taken off and left the two of them to be raised by their dad who was an abusive drunk with a wrap sheet, while Janie was at school upstate. Mia wasn't much better, either. She was never home, which meant Clara always got the worst of the abuse. Mia just couldn't bring herself to be around place, though. Around him. Mia had only wanted to get away from him and the bad memories their home had offered. Then their dad got arrested for child abuse and petty theft when Clara was three. The two of them spent three days in a foster home together before Janie finally got back to the city. Janie transferred to NYU, but things had never been good between her and Mia. Mia knew Janie resented her because she had managed to avoid the worst of her father's abuse, because of what Clara had gone through, and because now the two of them were stuck raising Clara together with no money, no time, and CPS breathing down their necks. But Clara didn't judge Mia. Unlike Janie, Clara was always silent and forgiving. She didn't know how to hold a grudge. She just wanted to understand their family – what had happened to Daddy? Where was Mommy? Why wasn't Janie her mommy? Mia wanted to make sure she never had to understand.<p>

"Hey, there, Clara," Mia greeted her sister on the front steps of her elementary school. She looked up at her sister's teacher, Ms. Kinsey, who walked her to the door and waited with her every day. "Hey, how was she – she try to wander off again?" Mia tried to keep her voice cheerful, but she was still irritated and shocked with the stunt Troy had pulled. She couldn't believe she had let herself walk into that.

Clara seemed to have only two hobbies: Wandering off – away from school, home, the park, the corner market – and watching trash news. The kind that liked to spread rumors about aliens invading Manhattan and mutant monsters lurking in the sewers. Clara was obsessed with it. Mia thought it was almost normal for kids to be interested in monsters or fairytale creatures of some kind, but no one could seem to tell them why she was constantly wandering away from places. It was one of the reasons why they had to take her to see a child psychiatrist twice a month.

Ms. Kinsey smiled reassuringly and shook her head. "No, Clara was very good today," she said. "I do need you to let your sister know, though, that she needs to come a parent-teacher conference next week. I put a letter about it in Clara's bag, but I know how busy she can be."

Mia nodded, frowning. She may not have been a genius, but she knew enough about school to know that parent-teacher conferences were never good news. "Yeah," she said. "Okay, no problem. Thanks, Ms. Kinsey." She grabbed Clara by the hand and led her down the steps of the school. "Say bye to your teacher, Clara."

Clara turned and waved to Ms. Kinsey silently.

* * *

><p>Candy wrappers, water bottles, empty potato chip bags, and a Dollar Store hand-held video game with bad graphics from the 1990s littered the floor of Raphael's darkened bedroom. The walls were decorated with posters of rock bands and action movies. The wall directly above his twin, wooden bed housed a shelf full of spray paint and in the corner of the room was a stereo on an entertainment stand made out of cinder blocks and two-by-fours. Raphael lay on his bed silently, listening to the ACDC that was blasting from his stereo and nodding his head to the beat. Then his eyes narrowed as they fell on something small and square in the darkness: The tank where Spike – AKA Slash – used to live. Before he had been mutated.

Since that day, Raphael had no one to talk to. He thought about trying to talk to Splinter about his problems, but it wasn't the same as talking to Spike. He could upset Splinter. He could let him down. He couldn't stand the idea of disappointing him.

Maybe he should buy a journal.

"Hey, Raph?"

Raphael looked up to see his older brother Leonardo poking his head inside of the doorway of the room. Raph scowled at him. Leo the leader. What did he want? "Yeah," he said, turning over onto his side so that he faced the wall. "What do you want, Leo?"

"You wanna turn off the music?" Leo asked him. "We're having a meeting in the living room about patrol tonight. You need to be there." He started to leave. Then he paused and added, looking back at him, "Oh, and lose the attitude, okay?"

"Yeah, whatever," Raphael murmured, rolling over as he listened to his brother's fading footsteps. He grabbed the remote to the stereo of the floor and switched it off. "Whatever you say, O great one." Then, climbing out of bed, he threw the remote across the room nonchalantly.

He crossed the room, closing the door behind him, and walked down the hall to the room Leo had so lovingly referred to as the "living room". Raph didn't bother kidding himself, though. They didn't have living room. They actually lived underground in an abandoned subway terminal. Their "living room" was actually a set of four concrete benches set in a sunken pit at the base of the entrance. Raph imagined it was where people would go to wait for the trains back when the place had actually been up and running. They had tried their best to make it cozy and feel like an actual living room with blankets, lots of throw pillows donated by April, a bean bag chair, a tire swing, and even an old television set equipped with a N64 and a set of rabbit ears – how the heck they got a television signal down here, Raphael had no idea. That was Donnie's area of expertise. But it wasn't a living room. It was a pit.

"What is this about us going on patrol tonight?" Raphael said, trying to keep the irritably out of his voice to avoid a fight with Leo or Splinter or whoever. He was just not in the mood right now. He tried his best to sound curious and sat down beside Michelangelo, his youngest brother, on the bench nearest the television. "I thought we were going to lay low after the whole Kraang invasion thing?"

"Well, see, Donnie doesn't seem to think it's such a good idea to leave all those mutagen canisters just lying around the city," Michelangelo filled him in, smiling.

"Especially with the Kraang and the Shredder out looking for them," Leo added. "There's no telling what they might use those canisters for."

"Exactly," Donatello said, nodding as he hauled a quark bulletin board with a map of the city taped to it out of his garage laboratory. The map was decorated with hundreds of red and green thumb tacks. He put the bulletin board in the center of the room and turned to face them. "Now, then," he said. "These thumb tacks represent areas in the city where my mutagen radar picked up on loose canisters of mutagen. The green thumb tacks represent low-risk areas where there are only a few canisters, and the red thumb tacks represent areas with, er –" He paused for a moment, struggling to find the right words. "More than a few."

"So the red areas are our main priority then?" Raphael asked. He turned to his brothers for confirmation. "Right?"

"I don't know," Leo said, shaking his head. "I mean, they're definitely a problem, but I'm not sure if it's a good idea to leave any canisters out there just waiting to be found by an unsuspecting human."

"Yeah," Michelangelo said, grinning. "Just think of all the cool new mutations that could happen, though!"

Leo scowled at him. "Sounds like just what we need," he said. "More enemies."

"Yeah," Raphael said, "but you gotta figure it like this: Those red zones mean twice as many as humans are in danger than in the green ones."

There was a moment of silence before Donnie said hesitantly, "That is true and a lot more of the red zones are residential, too." He pointed to an area of the map. "This one here is even in the same school district as April." He looked at Leo. "A lot of people are in danger here, Leo."

"Sometimes," a voice said, and they all turned to see Master Splinter walking towards them, leaning on his staff. "In dark times, we must sacrifice the lives of a few to save many." He came a halt, facing Leo. "I am afraid this may be one of those times."

Raphael nodded in silent agreement with his master. Sometimes he hated being right.

* * *

><p>The SpongeBob Squarepants alarm clock that stood on the nightstand that the divided the bedroom Mia shared with Clara read eight-thirty PM exactly. Mia sat on her bed silently, trying to finish her Global History homework. She had finally managed to get Clara to fall asleep ten minutes ago and now she had a mountain of schoolwork to do. And Troy would <em>not <em>stop calling. She shoved her cellphone in the pocket of the hoody she was wearing and scribbled down the answer to the first question. Then she began searching her book for the answer to the next one.

At that exact moment, as if on cue, Mia heard the front of their bedroom apartment open and slam shut. She froze, waiting. "Mia!" Janie shouted from the living room a moment later.

Mia sighed and slammed her textbook shut. She stood up and walked to the ever-messy living room where Clara was asleep on the couch and Janie was in the doorway, scowling. Janie looked like an older version of Clara with mousier hair, bluer eyes, and a cleft in her narrow chin.

"Why isn't Clara in bed?" Janie demanded.

Mia looked at her. "She just fell asleep there after dinner," she said. "I didn't want to move her because I know how long it takes for her to fall asleep again."

"So now _I _have to wake her up and try to get her to bed?" Janie asked, raising her eyebrows. "Do you realize I have to be in school in an hour?"

"Well, I'm sorry," Mia said, except she actually wasn't. She had done everything Janie had asked her: Helped Clara with her homework, made her dinner, and make sure she got to sleep. Now, she was being yelled at for it and she could feel the anger creeping into her voice. "She was exhausted and I have schoolwork to do. I wasn't about to – "

"Just stop making excuses, okay?" Janie said, pushing past her. She walked over to the couch and began to shake Clara awake gently. "You know, I'm the one working two jobs to take care of you guys and spending my days off taking classes at a school I hate in a city I detest." She looked at her younger sister. "And you don't see me making excuses, do you?"

"Only unless you need a reason to complain about us!" Mia snapped at her angrily. "Maybe you should have just let us rot in foster care. Then your life would be easier, wouldn't it?" She stormed across the room and threw on her sneakers. Then she left, slamming the door behind her.

Mia could hear Janie calling after her as she ran down the stairs to the first floor and out of the grubby, moldy lobby of the apartment building. She could hear Clara's confused, sleepy whimpers – the first sounds she had made in a month. But Mia wasn't turning back. She needed to get out of there if only for a moment. Every day it was the same thing. She did everything she was supposed to and still Janie was mad at her. No matter how she tried to help and make things better, Janie still had not forgiven her.

Mia walked down the sidewalk silently, huffing angrily as she went. Her breath came out in misty, white clouds and as she walked, she realized that the streets were strangely empty. True, she did not live in the greatest neighborhood, but she knew all of the neighbors and they were all good people. She had never even heard of so much as a mugging in this neighborhood. So where was everyone? She thought, looking up and down the street. Then she rounded the corner and that was when she saw them: Four men huddled under the light of a flickering streetlamp in the alley between a low-rise and the corner market. One of them was fat and balding beneath his baseball cap, counting the money in his fist as he turned to leave. The other three were Asian, decorated with matching tattoos. One was a giant with bulging muscles that towered over the other two, the next was shorter with a mustache, and the last was a small, thin man with beady eyes, and a cruel, twisted smile. He was the one holding the canister. By the time Mia had time to register all of this, their eyes had fallen on her.

"She's seen the canister!" the thin man shouted.

It was then that Mia fully realized what was happening and that she should have started running a long time ago. But it was too late now. Her entire body had erupted in goosebumps and she was stuck – completely frozen in place, no matter how hard she tried to force herself to move. Then before she had time to process the moment, she was on the ground in the alley and her head collided with the concrete, filling her eyes with tears as blood began to pool at the base of her skull. Blinking to clear her blurred vision, Mia saw the men standing over her.

"Now," said the thin guy, who seemed to be the leader of this gang. "We're gonna make you forget whatever it is you saw." And he pulled a small, thin sledgehammer out of his pocket.

* * *

><p>Raphael pulled out of a back-flip and landed silently on the roof of a building with six jet black chimneys that pierced the night sky and a billboard that deemed the building the Dandelion Bread Factory. A few feet away from him, Leonardo was talking quietly with Donatello, who was trying to use his mutagen radar to get a more accurate reading on the location of any canisters in the area. Michelangelo was roof jumping the series of buildings a couple hundred yards behind them, performing elaborate tricks and flips mid-air while humming the theme to <em>Mission Impossible <em>with all the silence of a freight train.

Raphael sighed and wandered over to the edge of the roof, rolling his eyes as Mikey pulled out of a corkscrew and – finally – landed on the roof of the bakery. "Hey, Mikey," he said. "I thought we were supposed to be ninjas, not ballerinas?" He sat down on the ledge overlooking the street below.

Mikey skidded a halt and looked at him, smiling coolly. "Pfft!" he scoffed."Don't let my mad skills get to you, bro. 'Sides, don't you know the ladies love a fella that can throw down on the dance floor?"

"Too bad you're a turtle then," Raph replied in a murmur too quiet for anyone to hear.

As if any of them would ever get girlfriends, he thought, fixing his gaze on the blinking red light of a helicopter somewhere high above them. He thought of the way Donnie looked at April – the way he had looked at her since the first time he had laid eyes on her. At first, it had been fun to watch and to make fun of him, but over time, it just gotten more and more painful to see. Especially now that it was so obvious that April did not feel the same way about his brother. Of course, no one had the heart to tell Donnie that. Not even Raphael, but he wasn't stupid, either. He was sort of glad he would never have to worry about that sort of thing. He didn't need that kind of drama in his life.

"Alright, guys," Leonardo said, breaking his train of thought. "Donnie's got a lock on a canister just a few streets east from here –"

"So what are we standing here for?" Raphael said, jumping to his feet. "Let's get going!"

He pushed past his brothers and leapt off the bakery, heading east. The others were behind him as he ran across the roof of the neighboring appliance store. Immediately, he felt better. No matter how much Splinter or Leo or anyone stressed that these trips up to the surface world weren't for fun, but running across these roofs was one of the few times when Raphael felt like he could forget about everything. But it didn't make him happy, exactly, because he knew what he was actually here to do. It just made him feel content. At ease.

"Raphael!" Leo grabbed him by the shoulder and spun him around sharply as they landed on the roof an apartment building.

"What?" Raph spat at him. "What the heck are you stopping me for?"

"Well, if you had been listening," Donatello said quickly, panting slightly. "You would know that the canister we're looking for is right around –"

He was cut off then by an ear-shattering scream.

* * *

><p>Mia lay on the ground, curled up into the fetal position. This was the one thing she knew about fighting: Curl up into a ball and you should be okay. But she wasn't okay. The hammer came down over and over again, landing each time with a sickening <em>thud<em>. She could feel blood running down her face and seeping through her shirt. Then another man kicked her in the abdomen. Then the other punched her in the face. Every part of her ached.

Then for a split second, everything stopped and she found herself on her hands and knees, coughing. Trying to catch her breath and just process everything. Then the hammer slammed her back into the concrete floor of the alley. A small voice inside of her head told Mia she didn't have a chance. She never had a chance. This was New York City. Something like this was bound to happen eventually, but that couldn't be true, could it?

Mia had lived in this neighborhood for years. The people in the building right beside her had babysat Clara for two years back when she had been in middle school. That was the worst part – she was so close to home, so close to her family. She knew she could get away if she just ran hard enough. In that instant, adrenaline flooded her veins and she jumped to her feet. She managed to dodge a blow from the sledgehammer and then elbowed the giant in the face as he tried to grab her. Then she took off running down the alley.

"Get her!" Mia heard the leader of the gang yell.

Then Mia heard the sound of gunshots exploding off the walls of the ally, and the sensation was instantaneous: She fell to the ground immediately as fire was set to her calf. Her body rocked with pain as blood and tears streamed down her face. Her breath came out in sharp, short, choked sobs that sent pain shooting through her chest. The adrenaline was gone now. All she felt now was white-hot, searing pain as she became aware of the gangsters drawing nearer.

Then, suddenly, an angry, ear-splitting scream filled the air, and the ally was flooded with black smoke.

* * *

><p>Raphael hit the floor of the alley and ran at Fong, the leader of the Purple Dragons. He knew Leo would want to take him out, but he didn't care. He grabbed Fong by the arm and threw him against the wall of the ally, causing him to drop the sledgehammer. He was vaguely aware of the sound of the canister clattering to the floor, but he wasn't thinking. He had lost the control the second he had seen that gun – that gun one of Fong's thugs had pulled on an innocent girl. He hit him over and over again.<p>

"Raphael!" Leonardo shouted, grabbing him by the wrist. "Calm down – we have the canister!"

Raphael paused and then he realized that Fong was on the floor of the ally, bloody and whimpering. He looked from Fong to Leo and back again. Leo held the canister, which was cracked slightly, in his left hand. He looked up and down the ally. The other Dragons had gotten away and the smoke from Donnie's smoke bomb had long since cleared.

Still panting, Raphael nodded, and turned. Then he froze as his eyes fell on the girl the Dragons had been attacking and he felt dread flood his stomach. She lay on the ground in a crumpled heap. Her long black hair fell in messy curtains over her ivory face. Her expression was made unreadable by the rivers of blood and tears that flowed down her face.

Without thinking, Raphael found himself moving towards her. "Kid," he said and he was shocked by the urgency he heard in his voice. "Kid, are you alright?" He edged closer to her and his eyes wandered to her hands, which she had curled into claws and wrapped around the bullet wound in her leg.

Her eyes snapped on him then huge, brown, wild with pain and agony. Then her gaze wandered to his brothers.

"Raphael!" Leonardo said. "We can't help her – she needs a doctor!"

Raphael ignored him and moved closer to her, his fingers reaching out to touch her. He knew then they could help her. "Kid," he said again. "Are you alright?"

Her eyes snapped back to him. "D-don't touch me!" she shrieked, shrinking away from him. She clung closer to the wall of the ally. "Don't, please...!" Her voice broke off in a sob.

It was then that it hit him: She was afraid of him. Of course, she was. He was a mutant turtle. A monster. To her, he was just as scary as the Purple Dragons.

"Hey, you guys," Michelangelo called from the top of the low-rise apartment building directly beside them. "We need to go. The cops are coming!" The sound of sirens filled the air.

Leo walked over to him. "Raphael," he said sternly. "We need to go _now_. Listen to me – we cannot help her."

Donatello nodded from his place on the fire escape. "Leo's right, Raph," he said. "She's too badly wounded – she needs a doctor."

Raphael ignored them. Instead, he took the T-phone from his belt silently and dropped it at the girl's feet. "If you ever need anything, call us," he said. "We won't hurt you. We're the good guys, kid."

Then he turned and leapt up the fire escape in three, perfectly executed jumps. He stepped onto the roof of the lowrise and walked away.

A/N: First of all, if you made it all the way to this Author's Note, then I would like to say thank you for sticking with me to the end of my first chapter. I would also like to ask you to stick with me until the end of the entire fanfiction. I understand that a lot of the members of this fandom do not enjoy reading about OCs and may not agree with the direction I am planning on taking this fic in, but I am writing this as a personal challenge to myself. I feel that this is grey area in TMNT universe that has not be explored nearly enough, and I have decided to explore to better myself as a writer and I'd love to hear some feedback from my fellow fans or critics on the characters I am introducing to the universe and to the events taking place in the story. If you're willing to do that, thank you in advance.  
>And thanks again, if you read all the way to this way.<p> 


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own TMNT.

A/N: Hey, guys, sorry it took me so long to get this up. Long story short, I just got freaking pummeled by my depression and unfortunately, it got in the way of my writing. I'm really sorry about that and hope that you can all manage to forgive me for the wait. Good news is, I've already started work on the third chapter and hope to have it up very soon. Bad news is, I'm not 100% going to put Casey in this story. I'm just not overly fond of his character series, but if you guys would like to see him in the fic, then please let me know in the reviews and I'll figure out a way to write him in.  
>Thanks, guys. Happy reading! :D<p>

02

Mia lay silently in the darkness curled up into a ball, her hair and clothing weighed down by the blood she had lost. She couldn't feel anything, except for the pain. It was enough to block out all of her other worries and feelings. Sirens echoed inside her head, moving closer and then infinitely farther away as jewel-bright eyes stared down at her. She couldn't tell the color of them at first. Then they came into focus: Two perfectly round, emerald green eyes, huge with shock – and worry?

_"Hey, kid – kid, are you alright?!"_

The sirens were replaced by a voice and Mia knew it must have belonged to him. It was heavy with a Brooklyn accent and mirrored the emotions in his gaze. The sound of it shocked her and, for a moment, she forgot the pain she felt. This person – this boy sounded both distant and nearby, and almost familiar, but she wasn't sure how. Did they go to school together – or maybe he lived near her?

_"Kid, are you alright?!"_

The boy's question echoed inside of her head for what felt like hours. Each time he asked, he sounded more worried and shocked than the time before. Mia wanted to answer him. She wanted to tell him everything was fine. That she was going to be okay, but her breath was trapped inside of her lungs and she couldn't bring herself to form the words, no matter how hard she tried. Then the pain came back just the same as before – a searing, white-hot fire that spread like wildfire, starting at the base of her skull and spreading throughout her.

The green-eyed boy spoke in a sad, far-away voice. _"If you ever need anything...Call us. We won't hurt you, kid..."_ Then his voice faded away and so did he.

Glaring, white, light shone in Mia's eyes, blinding her. Her entire body ached with searing pain. Groaning, she looked away from the light and reached up to push it out of her face. Then she paused when she saw the thin, clear tube that had crept beneath the skin of her arm at some point she couldn't remember. She looked around silently, confused. She was in a small bed in a cubicle made of sheer, plastic curtains with two chairs and a small wheeled table at the foot of it. A pale, gray cast wrapped around her right leg and reaching up, Mia felt a thick, gauze bandage at the very base of her skull. She was in the hospital, she realized.

Then before she had time to really process what was happening, she found herself being slammed back against the bed. Instantly, pain shot throughout her body and she cried out loudly. She looked down to see Clara sitting in her lap, hugging her tightly.

"Clara –" Mia started but she was cut off by the wave of emotion that hit her. She was alive, somehow, even though she wasn't entirely sure what had happened to put her here. All she could remembered was being hurt by those thugs. None of that mattered, though. All that mattered was that she got to see her sister. "Omg," she said as tears brimmed up in her eyes. "Clara, I'm so happy to see you – I'm so glad that you're safe!" She wrapped her arms around Clara and hugged her as tight as she possibly could.

Then Clara pulled away from her and Mia saw a small, green oblong object clutched in her sister's hand.

Mia frowned. "Clara," she said. "Where did you get that?" She pointed to the object.

Clara frowned at her and held out her hand, offering the thing to her.

Mia took it and turned it over in her hand. It was some sort of homemade cellphone designed to look like – like a turtle shell? Mia pushed a button and the phone chirped into life. The words TURTLE POWER blinked across the screen in neon-green lettering. Then a picture appeared: A long-shot of an oversized turtle with herculean muscles that was covered in scars. A pair of three-pronged knives hung from a frayed leather belt and two perfectly round, emerald green eyes peered up at her from behind a bright red mask.

Mia gaped at the phone's screen. "The boy from my dream –" she gasped unable to finish the thought. Suddenly, she remembered everything perfectly.

* * *

><p>Raphael half-walked, half-ran down the steps of the sewer lair. He made a beeline for the attack dummy that stood on the outskirts of the pit. He just wanted to beat on something.<p>

"What the heck were you thinking?"

But, of course, that wasn't going to happen.

Raph paused and turned to face Leonardo and the others. Almost an hour had passed since their run-in with the Dragons, and they had managed to collect ten canisters of mutagen. But there were more out there. Thanks to him. He had ran aimlessly ahead of the others, barely aware of the orders Leo kept barking at him or the questions the others kept repeating. The girl's voice - her sobs, her screams - was trapped inside of his brain, eating away at him, begging him to turn back. Filling him an unusual mixture of misery and anger. Then he had remembered:

_"__Don't touch me! D-don't, please!" _

This memory kept crashing over him like a freaking tidal wave, dragging him back to reality while the sounds her screams and that gunshot kept pulling him away from it. He didn't know why. Maybe because this time it hadn't been a faceless mass of sheer panic that needed saving. Maybe because this girl had been on her own with no weapons, no skills, and no one to help her. Just alone with her fear.

Her fear of him.

Once the thought had sunk in, Raph couldn't stop himself from turning around and heading back to the lair. At least he'd have something to punch there.

"Raphael," Leonardo said angrily. "Seriously, _what _were you thinking?"

Raph blinked at his brother, trying to regain his train of thought and scoffed. "You're going to have to be a bit more specific, Leo."

"I think you know what I'm talking about," Leo said, crossing his arms.

"Yeah, you know," Michelangelo chimed in, waving his nunchucks over his head wildly. "When you momentarily lost your mind and pawned your T-phone off on that girl." He made the cuckoo symbol with one of his chucks.

"You can't just give out Turtle Tech to random humans, Raph," Donatello said, nodding in agreement.

"Oh, what," Raph said, looking at him. "You mean like you did with April. That's not allowed?" He raised his eyebrows at him in false surprise.

Donnie sputtered wordlessly for a moment and then spat at him angrily, "April's different! Besides," he added, gesturing to his garage laboratory. "Hasn't it occurred to you whose job it's going to be replace that tech – mine! I'm going to have to rebuild it. I have a life, you know!" He jabbed him in the chest angrily.

Without even thinking, Raphael took one of his sai off of his belt and pointed it back at him. "Back off, Donnie," he growled. He may have been playing it cool before, but he was getting real tired of this real fast. He had been pissed off ever since they had saved that girl and no matter how hard he tried to make them see he didn't want to talk to them, his brothers just wouldn't shut up. Why did he have explain everything he did to them?

"What is going on?!"

Raphael jumped at the sound of Splinter's voice. Then he turned to face him and felt his anger evaporate immediately. There was no hiding it now. "Master Splinter," he started with dread in his voice. "T-there was a girl – "

"Oh, a girl," Splinter said, smiling and feigning surprised interest. "Why am I not surprised?!" he added in an irritated growl. "Tell me what has happened now!"

Raphael shot dark glances at his brothers. Then he looked back at Splinter and began explaining the situation with the girl and the Dragons.

* * *

><p>Mia spent about ten minutes looking through all the pictures and information on the phone, trying to figure out what was going on. The more she found on the phone, the more confused she got. The one this phone belonged to – apparently, he was called Raphael – wasn't the only walking, talking, bipedal, giant turtle in existence. There were three others tagged in his photos that were also listed in contacts along with a human girl named April and two other contacts listed as Splinter and Pulverizer. How the heck was there not one but four humanoid turtles in NYC and how had one of them managed to save her?<p>

"Oh, Clara, look what I have!"

When she heard the sound of Janie's voice, Mia pounded what seemed to be the power button on the phone and shoved it underneath her pillow.

"Mia?"

She looked up at Janie, who was standing at her the foot of her bed carrying two trays of pancakes. "Oh, hey," Mia said, forcing herself to smile. She slid her hand slowly out from underneath the pillow, trying her best to make it look natural. There was no way she could let Janie see that phone for two reasons: First of all, she would assume that it was all Mia's fault that Clara was now obsessed with monsters and mutants just for having the stupid thing. And, second of all, Janie would think she was a complete lunatic for thinking that a giant turtle named Raphael – who easily could have been a creation of Photoshop – had actually saved her life.

Janie dropped the trays of food onto the table next to the bed where Clara had been coloring on some computer paper, and sat down in the nearest chair. "So you're awake, huh?" she asked, smiling. "Do you remember anything about last night? The doctor said you hit your head pretty hard, so we weren't sure if you'd be able to remember much."

"I remember a lot of what happened, actually," Mia told her, nodding.

"Good, good," Janie said. "Do you remember anything about how your attackers got away, though? I mean, did they just run away when they heard the sirens or –"

"It was definitely the sirens," Mia said, cutting her off and wondering if she had spoken a bit too quickly. "They just scared them off."

At that exact moment, Clara jumped to her feet, knocking the food to the floor with a splat as she began waving her drawing around silently.

"Omg, Clara!" Janie cried out, grabbing a fistful of napkins to clean up the mess with.

"It's not a big deal," Mia said reassuringly. "We can get more food. She just wants to show you her drawing."

"Would you shut up?" Janie shot at her, scowling. "That food costs ten dollars a tray. There's no way we can afford more than what I already bought and Clara hasn't even eaten breakfast yet because we've been waiting for you to wake up!"

"Well, hey, guys!"

Mia turned to see Troy standing in the doorway of the cubicle, bearing a bouquet of wilted sunflowers and what seemed to be a binder full of her homework from her first five periods of school. Great, she couldn't keep from thinking, now he had decided to be responsible.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own TMNT.

03

"And just about done," Raphael said, pulling his arm out from under Michelangelo's bed. "Oh, gross," he cried out when he saw the moldy teddy bear he'd retrieved from the abyss. "Unbelievable," he muttered, getting to his feet and shaking his head.

He stood and surveyed the room silently. It had been exactly one week since the incident with the Purple Dragons, and one week since Splinter had put him on clean-up duty for the entire lair. It was supposed to be a punishment, but Raph knew that the real reason Splinter was making him do this was to keep him distracted, and it was working. Most of the anxiety and depression he had felt on that night was gone now thanks to his master's guidance, but it still sucked. That was a whole week he could have spent beating Super Mario 64.

"Hey, you found Booboo!"

Raphael looked up to see Michelangelo standing in the doorway. Then he looked from the bear to his brother and back again. "You mean you _like_ this thing?" he said skeptically. The bear's stuffing was leaking out from beneath a mountain of duct-tape and there was an aging piece of pizza plastered across it's face that had begun to sprout mushrooms of the non-editable variety.

"Of course," Mikey said, taking the bear from him. "Booboo's my bro. I have had him since forever ago. Thanks for finding him." He peeled the pizza off the bear's face and ate it in one bite.

Raph worked hard to keep a look of disgust off his face. "Yeah, whatever," he said, grabbing the three bulging bags of garbage off the floor of the room. "Just do me a favor and _try _to keep it clean in here." He started to leave the room.

"Oh, btw," Michelangelo said, flopping down onto his newly made bed. "April is here. She said something about wanting to talk to you."

Raphael paused and looked at Mikey. "Did she say why?" he asked him.

"Don't think so," Michelangelo said, throwing Booboo up into the air and catching him again. "I sort of spaced out after DBZ came on, you know?"

Raphael sighed, shaking his head. "Yeah, I know," he muttered. Mikey had the attention span of a freaking flea.

He walked the past pit and into the kitchen, wondering what April could want. It wasn't all that long ago that she had been avoiding him and the others like the plague – not that they didn't deserve it. It was because of them that her dad was now a giant, mutated fruit bat. But, lately, she had started coming around the lair again and had even spent the night a couple of times. Raph thought it was because she had finally decided that Donatello had suffered enough of the silent treatment – either that or she was trying to torture him with the new "friend", Casey Jones, she had brought with her. No one really knew how to feel about Casey, except for Donnie who hated him. Raph thought Casey would have been alright if hadn't been for April situation or the regular urge he felt to punch him in the face whenever he said something stupid.

"Oh, Raph, you got a minute?"

Raphael cringed at the sound of April's voice as he dropped the garbage bags into the compressor, and silently prayed that she wasn't about to ask him to help her decide who she should take with her to the school dance or some other girly thing. "Yeah, sure," he said, looking up as she walked over to him. He sat down across from her at the large, stainless island table that took up the majority of the kitchen.

"So I hope you don't mind," April said, smiling at him, "but I kind of wanted to talk to you about that girl you guys saved – you know, from the Dragons. Donnie told me all about what happened."

Raphael felt his spine turn immediately rigid. This was exactly the thing he had been trying not to think about. This was exactly the thing he had been trying so hard to forget about, but despite his best efforts, he hadn't been able to. Not completely. Most of what he remembered about her had just faded into a blur – her face, the look in her eyes on that night, the way her blood had soaked through her clothes as she lay unable to move. All of those things he had fixated on one week ago that had made him want to turn and run back to that ally had become a painful memory, except for one detail: Her voice. It was still trapped inside his head like a song set on "Repeat". Whenever someone put on a horror movie, he heard her screaming instead of the B-grade actors on the screen. If he ever had a nightmare, it was her scream he heard instead of his own. Except for the times he dreamed about soaring through the city, jumping from roof to roof, searching for someone he knew was in danger only to hear her words from that night again:

_"Don't touch me! D-don't, please!" _

It just wouldn't go away, no matter how hard he tried to block it out. That was why a small part of him was constantly wondering if she was okay or if she would ever use that T-phone to contact him. But...No, she wouldn't. Why would she reach out to someone she was afraid of?

"Raph?" April said, breaking his train. "Raph, it's about tha–"

"What about her?" Raphael snapped, cutting her off. He hadn't meant to, but even the mention of her just made the screams come rushing back. His head was already aching from the effort he was putting into blocking them out.

April frowned, looking slightly hurt and said, "Nothing..." Her voice trailed off. Then after a moment of careful thought she added, "It's just that I'm pretty sure she and I go to school together."

Raphael looked up at her. "What?" he asked her. Then he remembered. The area they had been patrolling that night had been in April's school district. In fact, April was the whole reason they had been in that part of the city.

"Well," April said, "I found a girl that sort of sounds like her and she missed a couple days of school last week that match up with when the attack was. Plus, it looks like she just got out of the hospital and the rumor is that she was jumped by some thugs or whatever. Hold on." She pulled out her phone and began tapping away at it. Then she held it out to him hesitantly. "Is that her – the girl you saved?"

It took every ounce of strength Raphael had to keep from slapping the phone out of April's hand when he saw what was on the screen. If he had known she was going to bombard him with this, he would have just locked himself in his room and stayed there. Now, he stared silently, in stony-faced shock at the Friendspace page she had pulled up that had a huge picture of the girl splashed across the profile banner. In the picture, she was sitting on the floor of a messy living room with bad lighting, surrounded by text books with a little mousy-haired girl not much older than five or six sitting beside her, staring up at her. Her long, black hair was piled on her head in a sloppy bun and her eyes were lit up as she smiled down at the younger girl, who Raph thought must have been her sister or something. Then his eyes drifted down to her name: Mia Blake.

And that was when he lost it. He grabbed the phone from April and slammed it face down on the tabletop. "Why the hell are you showing me this, April?" he growled at her. "I didn't ask for you to tell me this or to show me this or to find out anything about her!" He jumped to his feet and stormed out of the kitchen. He knew he had crossed a line, and he could feel the tension that had filled the sewer lair.

"So that was her then?" April asked him matter-of-factly.

"April, stop it," Leonardo said from his spot in the pit. He scowled at his brother. "What is your problem, Raph – April was only trying to help."

"My – my problem?!" Raphael sputtered, scowling right back at him. Then he stopped himself because he had almost said too much. He took a breath and said, panting, "I don't freaking know. I don't have a problem, Leo. I just want to be left alone."

He pushed past Leo and started off for his room, knowing everything he had said back there was a lie. He knew exactly what was wrong. Her name was Mia. Mia Blake, that's what was wrong. He couldn't handle her having a name. He couldn't handle _knowing _her name. That made her real – an actual, living, breathing person. Not just a bad memory he could move on from and forget about. No. Now, she was Mia and Mia was afraid of him. Mia hated him. Mia thought he was a monster, he thought as he closed the door to his bedroom behind him.

Then he threw himself down on the bed and let his mind drift back to that night, back to his talk with Splinter in the dojo:

_Raphael stared up at Splinter as they knelt side by side on the raised platform of the dojo. He knew his master wasn't mad at him anymore. He could tell by how disappointed he looked, but he still couldn't keep the words from coming out. "I-I just wanted her to understand," he said in a shaking, helpless voice that made him ashamed to even think about. "I just didn't want her to be afraid, Sensei. I was just wanted her to know she didn't have to be..." His voice trailed off and he looked down at the dozen or so oriental rugs that made up the training mats he had been using his whole life. _

_ Splinter sighed. Then he reached out and put his hand on his shoulder. "What is done is done, my son," he said simply. He was silent for a moment before he went on. "All warriors have battles that they wish to forget. Your brothers will have them eventually." He grabbed his staff off the floor and pushed himself to his feet. "It is best you try to forget what has happened tonight, Raphael, so that it does not haunt you in the future as well." _

And that was exactly what Raphael had been trying to do. To forget everything about her and that night. To block out the gunshots, the screams, the sounds of her sobbing in agony. To force himself into not worrying about her. But she had a name now, and suddenly, he was finding that a lot harder to do.

* * *

><p>Mia lay in her bed silently, her brain fuzzy with sleep and her eyes watering with tears for the third time in a week. She wasn't sure why, but the counselor she was being forced to see at school said it was anxiety from the attack. But maybe she was just afraid she was losing her mind?<p>

Ever since she had woken up in the hospital, Mia had been trying to avoid thinking about the boy who had saved her. The boy who also happened to be a giant, talking turtle named Raphael. Once or twice her curiosity had gotten the better of her and she gone online to see if she could proof of his existence. But all she managed to find were some blurry videos on blogs and some old news clips from questionable sources. Mostly, though, she just wanted to forget the whole thing had ever happened simply because she was tired. She was tired of wondering why or how a giant turtle was living in NYC, she was tired of looking over her shoulder when she was walking Clara to school, and she was tired of getting yelled at for the growing stockpile of MACE she had built in her closet because she didn't know how else to defend herself – especially since she was in a cast and walking on crutches – if she was ever attacked again.

So she invented a quick lie about the strange cellphone being a toy Clara must have brought home from school and just let her play with it. It was definitely the easiest way to explain her newest obsession: Turtles.

"Mia, what are you still doing in bed?" Janie asked, appearing in the doorway of the room. "You need to get ready. Troy is going to be here soon."

Mia cringed at the mention of Troy's name as she climbed out of bed. He had been all over her ever since she got out of the hospital. He called her day and night, and walked her to and from school, no matter how cold she was to him. She didn't what else to do. She had stopped speaking to him in school, wasn't taking his calls, and was actively avoiding him as much as possible. He just wouldn't leave her alone, though. Nonetheless, she knew that having him walk her to school made Janie feel more at ease, so she kept her mouth shut about how she hated it just to keep Janie from being mad at her. "Alright," she muttered, forcing herself to sit up. She grabbed her crutches off the floor and got dressed quickly.

Then when she was finished, she paused. There was the phone just sitting there in the middle of a pile of Clara's toys on the floor. For the first time since she realized she had it, the phone was silent. Before it had been ringing nonstop with all kinds of calls and nonstop text messages. She had thought about looking through some of them, but knew that she would probably regret it. Now, though, its silence filled her with an unusual sort of unease. A part of Mia had realized that she had said horrible things to Raphael the night she had been attacked, but she didn't know what to do. How was she supposed to move on with her life if she was constantly stressed out over something she'd said to someone she might possibly never see again? Did he even care if she apologized?

Mia balanced herself on the crutches and picked the phone up silently. Then she threw it into the toy box on the other side of the room. She just wanted to forget.

* * *

><p>"Hey, babe," Troy greeted her later that day outside of her Marine Bio class. "How was class?"<p>

Mia frowned at him and sighed. Clearly, the silent treatment wasn't working. Time to try a new approach. "Fine," she said, ducking out of the way of his arm when he tried to put it around her.

Troy smirked and followed her down the hallway. "Cool, cool," he said, nodding. "Is it okay if I walk you to lunch?"

"Actually," Mia said, "I was just on my way to my locker." She pointed down the hall to where her locker was.

"Alright," Troy said. "I'll just carry your books then." He snatched the books out of her hand, and walked ahead of her.

"Troy –" Mia cried out, hobbling after him.

Troy spun around and pressed his hand over her mouth. "Hey, just chill out, would you?" he asked her with a pleading smile. "People are starting to stare."

Mia reached up and shoved his hand away from her. She stared after him as he turned and continued down the hall. "What the hell is wrong with you?" she spat at him. "I've tried being polite, but walking me to school, carrying my books – what is with you? You were never this devoted when we were a couple!" They reached her locker and she threw the crutches against it with a resounding bang.

"What are you talking about?" Troy asked her, laughing in disbelief. "I know we're in a weird place right now, but we're still a couple. That's why I'm trying to make things better between us, Mia. I mean, that is what you wanted, right?" He threw her books in the locker.

"You know what," Mia said, grabbing the books for the rest of her classes. "A year ago, I probably would have loved it, but there is such a thing as trying too hard..." Her voice trailed off as realization dawned on her. She looked up at him and asked in a stunned whisper, "Do you like me being this way?"

Troy stared at her cluelessly. "What way?"

Mia stared at him, uncertainly. There was no way he'd ever actually tell her. Not if he was doing what she thought was doing. "Nothing," she said, closing her locker and turning away from him. "I don't think I'm going to eat lunch today," she added, quickly inventing an excuse. "I need to go to the library. I have an essay to write."

"That's cool," Troy smiled at her. "Text me when you're done. I'll walk you to class." He leaned forward and kissed her on the cheek before she could duck out of the way.

Mia watched him disappear down the hallway into the cafeteria and for the first time since that morning, she allowed her thoughts to drift back to the phone. Right now, she would give anything to know that thing was the least of her worries.

* * *

><p>Mia stood at the sink in the cramped kitchen of her tiny apartment, washing the dinner dishes silently. From where she stood, she could see Clara in the living room coloring with her crayons with the phone clenched tightly in her free hand. She turned her gaze back to the murky dish water and finished rinsing out a cup. She felt strange. Her mind was filled with panic, but it was much duller than the usual panic she felt these days. After their talk in the hall at school, she hadn't seen Troy again all day. He hadn't called her or texted her at all, either. But she was being silly, right? He had probably just thought about what she had decided and decided to move on. He had finally learned when to give up.<p>

She probably should have been happy that he was finally leaving her alone, Mia thought, rinsing a pasta strainer. Maybe now she could finally focus on the things that were really important. Like forgetting.

"Hello? Hey, hello, who is this?"

Mia looked up at the sound an unfamiliar boy's voice, but there wasn't anyone else in the room. It was just her and Clara. "Clara –" she cried out when she saw the phone, glowing with life in her hand.

Mia felt all of the color drain from her face and she immediately connected the dots. Clara had called someone. Using the weird turtle phone. On speaker. What if she had -_?_

"Who is this?" the voice on the other end said. "How did you get this number?!" He was starting to sound irritated.

"Omg, omg, omg," Mia said, grabbing her crutches from off the table. She half-ran out of the kitchen. "Clara, what did you –?" Then she cried out loudly as she found herself suddenly on the floor. She had tripped over the stupid crayons.

Clara stared at her silently, looking unsure of what to do.

Then, suddenly, Mia heard the muffled sounds of movement on the other end of the phone. Then she heard a second more familiar voice. "Hello, this isn't Mia, is it?" he said. "Mia – ?"

Yep, she had.

Mia launched herself across the living room and snatched the phone out of Clara's hand. Then she pushed the End button as hard as she possibly could, cutting him off and ending the call.

A/N: First of all, I just wanted to give a quick shout out to everyone who took the time to read and review this fic. Thank you, guys, so much. Your support means so much to me. Without you, this chapter would never have been posted.  
>Second of all, I decided to throw Casey into the fic simply because I just couldn't bring myself to break canon. Leaving him out would have made this fic feel way too AU. However, we probably won't be seeing him very much because he's not really around that much, I think, in the show and because, honestly, him and Raphael just don't seem super close to me. They just seem like okay-ish friends that want to punch each other. Not best buds.<br>Anyway, please feel free to comment on that and, of course, the fic itself via a review or PM to me.  
>Thanks, guys! R&amp;R!<p> 


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own TMNT.

04

"Son of a –!" Raphael growled, punching the End button on Michelangelo's phone. He threw it back to him. Then he spun and punched the wall hard. "She's still not answering!" There was more panic than anger in his voice, and he didn't know how to hide it. He couldn't focus on that right now. Not with the noise inside his head and the ringing of the phone, making him feel like his head was about to explode.

"Just chill, Raph," Leonardo said, putting his hand on his shoulder. "We don't even know if it was her that called. It was probably just a wrong number or something. It happens."

Donatello looked up at them from his computer. "On an unlisted, encrypted line that only we have access to?" he said, not bothering to hide his skepticism. "Not likely."

"Would you just hurry up and find her!" Raphael shot at him.

Donnie started typing hurriedly on his computer. "I'm trying," he said. "It's not exactly easy, trying to triangulate a cellphone signal in New York City. These things take time."

"All I'm saying is, there's no reason to freak out," Leo said, crossing him arms. "It's only been about two minutes. I'm sure she'll call or something –"

"Yeah, _if_," Raphael said, pulling out of his grip. "If she's okay." He wasn't sure what was wrong with him. Panic had flooded his chest the instant he had heard Donnie's phone ring, and dread flooded his stomach. He knew it was her. He just knew it, and two minutes was a _long_ time. It was long enough to get shot or to get beat into a bloody pulp. A lot of damage could be done in two minutes.

Why didn't anyone else seem to realize that?

"Raph," Donnie said a minute later. "I think I've got a lock on her location."

"Finally!" Raph said. He jumped over the chem table in the middle of the room, and ran over to Donnie's desk, peering over his shoulder. His eyes narrowed when he saw the spot on the map. "This is right near where we found her the first time."

"Found who?"

Raph looked up to see Splinter standing in the door of the lab, looking at each of them expectantly and the room fell silent. "Master Splinter," he began pleadingly, and the screaming in his head grew even louder because he knew it was pointless to even ask. "Please, please, try to understand. It's the girl I saved from the Dragons – I think she's in trouble. I just have to go make sure she's alright."

Splinter sighed and shook his head. "What, _exactly_, did you tell this girl, Raphael?" he asked exasperated.

Raphael frowned at him uncertainly. "I-I told her to call if she ever needed anything. I told her that we would protect her – that I would, I mean."

Splinter looked down at him, stern-faced and said, "Then you must keep your word."

Raphael gaped at Splinter silently for a split second. Then he took off running out of the lair without another word.

* * *

><p>Mia sat on the floor of her living room and stared down at the phone that had been ringing non-stop for nearly five minutes. She held it tightly in her fist and gaped down at it. She couldn't believe this was happening. She was never supposed to hear from <em>him<em> again, and definitely not because her mute little sister decided to make a prank phone call. But that had been his voice she had heard on the other end of the line. There was no mistaking it.

"Huh?" Mia looked down when she realized the phone had stopped ringing. She stared at it like it was a bomb just waiting to go off. But nothing happened. And that was good, right?

It meant that he had given up. He was done calling. He had probably left her a voice message that she would never retrieve because she didn't know the password, and wait for her to call him back. Which was _never_ going to happen, and that was good. Right?

"Eh!"

Mia looked up to see Clara standing over her with her hand outstretched expectantly. For a split second, Mia stared at her stunned because she had grunted and that was practically a word. Unless she was scared or pain, Clara never made any kind of noise much less anything bearing any resemblance to a word. Then she looked from Clara to the phone and back again, and realization dawned on her.

"No," Mia said, shaking her head frantically, angrily. "You think you can just make a sound and all is forgiven?" She grabbed her crutches off the floor and pushed herself to her feet. "It doesn't work like that, Clara. You're in a big trouble, and you are never touching this thing again." She shoved the phone in her pocket before Clara even had a chance to look disappointed. Then she grabbed her by the arm and led her to their room. "You're going to bed early tonight."

* * *

><p>Thanks to all the shortcuts he had discovered on his solo runs, Raphael was now only one mile away from the address Donnie had given him. The closer he got, the louder her screams became inside his head. They were so loud, they blocked out the sounds of his heavy panting as he leapt from rooftop to rooftop, running so hard his chest hurt. But what really kept him going was what Leo had said back at the lab.<p>

What if he was wrong – what if it hadn't been her?

Raphael landed on the roof of the Dandelion Bread Factory and lightning flashed, lighting up the sky. Thunder clapped directly overhead and he took off running harder than ever.

Because that was the point. If it hadn't been her, what if it had been a Purple Dragon or a Foot Soldier – or worst?

There was another clap of thunder and then Raphael skidded to a halt on the roof of a crumbling apartment building. He felt the first drops of freezing rain fall on him as he walked to the edge of the roof silently. Then he paused and knelt down, frowning. He had found it.

This was the place where Mia was.

* * *

><p>Mia led Clara over to her bed and threw the blankets back. "Just go to bed," she said, and crossed the room to her own bed. She sat down on the bed and pressed her back against the wall. She dropped the crutches on the floor and ran her hands through her hair silently. She twined her fingers together, tying her hair up in knots and trying her best to breathe deeply.<p>

She was losing it, she knew, and it was all because of her own stupidity. All of this was her fault. All of this had happened because she hadn't been watching Clara. If Janie found out about any of it, all hell was going to break loose. The neighbors would call the cops again, and the cops would call CPS again. And all of it would be Mia's fault just like always.

Then, suddenly, lightning flashed outside the window and the lights in the bedroom flickered off.

"What, seriously?" Mia said, grabbing her crutches and climbing out of bed. "Wait here," she added to Clara, who stared back at her from her own bed silently. Mia tried to keep her voice from shaking.

She walked to the doorway of the room and poked her head out, silently praying that it wasn't a power outage. But when she looked out into the kitchen and living room all she could see was darkness. The lights had gone out in those parts of the apartment, too.

"Oh, my god, no," Mia groaned and felt warm, angry tears stinging the corners of her eyes. This was too much. It was all too much. Everything had gone wrong tonight. Literally everything and she just couldn't deal with all of it.

She turned in the doorway to look back at Clara and then she froze when she saw him. He was standing on the fire escape just outside the bedroom window, drenched from the rain and scowling in at her. And Clara wasn't in bed – she was opening the window to let him in.

* * *

><p>Fong stood silently the striped awning of the twenty-four-seven market just up the street. Part of his face was still bloody and swollen from his last encounter with the Turtles. He didn't care, though. He was here to work. Not to socialize.<p>

Not that there was much for him to do. The cashier who worked at the store had already told him the girl the Turtles had saved that night – Mia Something, her name was – came here a lot. So now all Fong had left to do was watch, and this spot under the awning gave him a remarkable view of the girl's bedroom window.

Smiling, Fong pulled a cellphone out of his pocket and dialed the first number on speed dial. "You were right, Master," he said in a hushed whisper. "Contact has been made."

Then he hung up the phone and dropped it in the garbage can beside him before he started to walk away.

A/N: Hey, you guys, I'm sorry this chapter is so short and that it took me so long to write. I've been very busy recently, getting ready for the holidays and setting up a new aquarium, but I have a new chapter that's gonna get put up soon hopefully. I hope you guys are looking forward to it and as always, thanks for always reading and reviewing! -MJ


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I do not own TMNT.

05:

Raphael stood silently on the fire escape, panting heavily and sopping wet from the rain. The window was streaked with rain and the whole building seemed to be completely dark. He couldn't see a damn thing that was inside of it. He was so confused. Was this an apartment building?

Then before he had time to think, the window in front of him was open and he was staring down at the little mousy-haired girl from Mia's Friendspace profile. The girl grinned up at him. Then she reached out and grabbed his hand, and hugged it to her chest.

Raphael stared down at her, frowning. She wasn't afraid of him at all – what a weird kid. Then he climbed over the window ledge and muttered quietly, "Thanks, kid."

He looked around the room silently. It was pitch black, but from what he could there were two beds, and the whole room seemed to be a mash-up of teenage girl and grade school princess. Then he spotted her, standing in the doorway and the screams inside his head vanished instantly.

Mia was staring at him. Gaping at him like he was a figment of her imagination, which she probably hoped he was. Her black hair fell to her shoulders in a disheveled curtain that hid part of her oval face from view, and her pale skin was offset was by the darkness. Her right leg was done up in a bright pink cast, and she was balancing herself with a pair of steel crutches.

Raphael straightened himself and felt his spine go rigid. He stared back at Mia silently, not knowing what to say or if he should say anything at all. He couldn't tell if she was afraid of him right now or if she was planning on using her crutches as a weapon. "Huh?"

He looked down to see that the mousy-haired girl had wrapped her arms around him and was beaming up at him.

Raphael frowned down at her.

_ What a weird freaking kid. _

"Clara!" Mia said somewhat breathlessly in a worried tone.

Within an instant, the girl released Raphael from her grasp and was on the other side of the room beside Mia.

Raphael looked up at Mia, frowning. "You are afraid?" He had meant it as a statement, but it came out as a question instead. He thought back to that night again. The look on her face when he came near her...

Mia's gaze snapped back to him and for a second, she looked like she might say something. Then she paused and looked away from him, down at the floor. She frowned and shook her head. "Y-you're real," she said in a hushed, choked whisper that was more timid than afraid. "I-I mean..." Her voice trailed off. Then she looked up at him and went on, "I mean, you're really here...Raphael?"

Raph froze at the sound of his name. He wasn't sure how, but it sounded different coming from her. Then he remembered why he was here and frowned. "Is this –?" he said, giving the room another quick once-over. Then he crossed the room and pushed past her into the hall. Like the room, he had just left the entire place was pitch black, but he could tell it was an apartment. He turned back to her. "You live here?"

Mia looked down at the floor again and nodded.

"Oh, my god," Raphael said, shaking his head in disbelief. "And you –" He gestured to Mia. "There's nothing wrong with you – you aren't in trouble. You're perfectly fine." He went back into the bedroom and sat down on the bed that was covered with a My Little Pony bed set. Then he looked back up at Mia, and said, "Why did you call me if you aren't in trouble – why didn't you call back to let me know you weren't in trouble?" He could hear the accusations and confusion in his voice, and he couldn't quite figure out how to disguise it. He had just come all the way over here and exposed himself to a human – two humans, actually – because he'd thought Mia was in trouble, being beaten to death by Purple Dragons or something. And she wasn't. She was freaking fine. Other than the cast, that is.

Leo was going to have field-day with this one when he found out.

Mia looked up at him. "I –" she started. Then she stopped and pointed to the girl, who was now sitting in the middle of the room, playing with her toys in the dark. "Clara is obsessed with you, alright, and she called you or whoever and it's my fault –"

Before he even knew what he was doing, Raphael was on his feet again and yelling at her, "And you couldn't call me back to tell me that?! I know it's not exactly an iPhone, but I thought you could have probably figured out the concept of Re-dial otherwise I wouldn't have given it to you." He gestured to Clara now. "Instead you make me come over here, thinking you're in danger because you let your – what, she's your sister, right – play with the stupid T-phone?!"

"Well, just take it then!" Mia screamed at him.

Then there was a small thud at his feet, and Raphael looked down to see the T-phone on the floor in front of him. He stared at it silently and an instant later there was a much louder crash, and he looked up to see Mia on the floor with her crutches strewn to the side and her legs sprawled out awkwardly.

Raphael stared at her.

He could feel Clara staring at him.

"Just take it," Mia said again. "I never asked for it..." Her voice trailed off.

And that was when Raphael realized she was crying.

Crap.

All of his anger and annoyance evaporated. He felt a twinge of guilt in his stomach and he grabbed the phone off the floor. Then he walked over to her and knelt down beside her. "You didn't have to ask for it," he reminded her. He reached out for her hand slowly, hesitantly, but she jerked away from him suddenly. "Okay," he said, frowning. "No touching. Got it."

Mia shook her head, frowning. "You keep it," she said, not looking up from the floor. "I really don't want it." Her voice was choked, but she was no longer sobbing.

"Too bad," Raphael said, dropping it into her lap. "I gave it to you. That makes it yours, Mia."

"You know my name?" Mia asked him.

"Yeah," Raphael said, frowning. "A friend of mine found you on Friendspace and showed me your profile."

Mia nodded silently.

Then Raph nodded and said, "I should probably get out of here before your parents get home or something, huh?" He crossed the room over to the window.

"Raphael?"

Raph paused with one leg in, one leg out of the window and looked back at Mia. "Yeah?"

She looked up at him with fresh tears in her eyes. "I'm so sorry," she said quietly. "You saved my life and I treated you horribly that night, and I know I did. I've thought about it before tonight. I wanted to apologize – I just didn't know how because I just didn't want you to be real, but now you are real and you're here. I didn't even thank you for that night –"

Raphael cut her off because she was starting to blubber. "You don't need to thank me," he said simply. "Th-that's not how this whole thing works." He was tripping over his own words in disbelief. He had never thought this would happen. She was apologizing to him. She wanted to thank him. None of this made sense. He shook his head again. Then he stepped out onto the fire escape and lightning lit up the sky once again. "Just keep in touch, okay?"

* * *

><p>One hour later, the lights in the apartment finally flickered back into life and Mia sat silently on the floor of her bedroom stunned. Raphael had found her. He had come to her home. He had been inside in her bedroom on her bed.<p>

Mia looked up at Clara, who was now playing dress up in their closet. She watched her silently, frowning. When Raphael had been, Clara had been happier than Mia had ever seen her. She had been friendly, open, and fearless – pretty much the exact opposite of Mia."You do realize you're going to have to completely forget that he was here, right?"

Clara dropped the princess crown she was holding and looked at her, frowning.

Mia frowned back. "Janie can't know that he was here, Clara," she explained. "You can't draw any weird pictures of him in our room or hanging out with you or me. Or do anything to make Janie think that someone else was here with us – all traces of Raphael need to be gone. Do you understand?"

Clara stared at her for a moment and then nodded.

Mia nodded silently, but she knew she didn't.

How was she was supposed to move on now?

* * *

><p>Raphael lay on his bed silently, staring up at the ceiling of his room with ACDC blaring from his stereo.

"Hey, Raph!"

Raph looked up to see Donatello and April standing over him. "Yeah?"

"New phone," Donnie said, dropping the gadget into his lap. Then he turned and left.

April didn't follow him.

Raphael frowned. This was happening way too much for his own liking. "You need something?"

"Are you going to talk to her?" April asked him.

Getting right to the point today, are we?

Raph didn't bother asking her which "her" she meant. He didn't know that many of them. "I don't really know if that's such a good idea."

April shrugged. "Well, maybe she thinks it's a good idea."

Raphael laughed humorlessly. "Yeah, right. Besides, don't you think she'd tell me if she actually thought that?"

"She probably would," April said, smirking, "if she actually had your number, so she could contact you."

Raphael sighed and propped himself up on his elbow to look at her square in the face. "Okay," he said. "I'm going to ask you this and I want you to answer me honestly. None of those weird, girly mind games you use on Donnie: Why do you care?" It came out meaner than he'd meant for it, but April's sudden interest in his social life was more than a little weird and was starting to get old. Fast.

"Seriously, Raph," April sighed, dropping the innocent act. "It's just because I'm your friend and I care about you. Plus, I've seen Mia around school and she looks absolutely miserable every time I see her. You guys both just seem like you need someone to talk to."

"Interesting," Raphael said, nodding as though he actually believed her. "But why I can't just talk to someone other than her?"

April crossed her arms and looked at him stonily. "Because, Raph, you don't talk to anyone. You shut out your brothers and I. You're afraid to talk to Splinter and Casey sucks with stuff like this, and Mia has a T-phone, so that makes her part of the club, right? So why _not _talk to her then? It's not like you have anything to lose, except your excuse for being a jerk all the time!" Then she stomped out of the room.

Raphael cringed. Then he frowned and fell over onto his pillow. It had been three days since the night he had seen Mia. He hadn't told any of the others what had happened that night. That Mia had been fine and nothing had been wrong at all. He'd only said that it was no big deal and he took care of it. No one asked any questions. Since that night, the screams inside his head had quieted a bit. He didn't hear them when he was awake. Only when he was asleep. And he was more than done trying to force himself to forget about her because the one thing that he absolutely could not get out of his head was her apology to him. The way she'd said it and the look on her face. It was like she was actually sorry. Like she actually cared about his feelings. Even though she hated him?

It just didn't make sense.

A strange idea occurred to him: What if she didn't hate him – not completely, anyway?

She hadn't seemed scared of him that night, exactly, even though she seemed afraid to _look_ at him. She _had _apologized. But she also screamed at him and broke down into a puddle of tears. He wasn't sure any of that constituted to a good time. So was there even a slither of a chance that Mia didn't completely hate his guts?

Raph picked up the phone Donnie had just given him and frowned at it.

* * *

><p>Mia was in lunch when she got the text message and she jumped when she felt the T-phone – that was what he'd called it, right? – go off in her pocket. She carried it with her everywhere now, and Clara wasn't allowed anywhere near it. She wasn't sure why she'd kept it. She <em>really<em> didn't want it anymore. She was tired of hearing it, looking at it, and constantly worrying about when it would go off next. She even thought about throwing the thing off her fire escape, but she thought back to that night that was never supposed to happen and she just couldn't bring herself to do it. She didn't know why. She just couldn't.

She took the phone out and frowned at it.

"Hey," Troy said, reaching out and snatching the phone from her. "Isn't this your sister's toy?" He looked up at her. "Why do you have it?"

Mia snatched it back from him, scowling. "I don't know. She must have been playing with my bag again." She grabbed her crutches off the table and got to her feet. "I need to go to the restroom," she invented quickly and was grateful when none of the other girls offered to come with her.

Mia left the cafeteria through the west exit – the one in the opposite direction of Troy's next class – and went inside the girls' room just off the hall. She went inside the first stall she saw, threw her crutches against the wall, and locked the door. She took the phone out again and began scrolling through the text messages again until she found the one that was labeled NEW. She clicked on it:

'this is raphael. New phone. New number. 555-7274.'

Mia frowned as she read it. The message was so simple. It was like something you'd send to a friend. Was she supposed to respond, and if so then how? What was she supposed to write?

She sat down on the toilet and stared down at the phone. Raphael was real. She was done pretending that he wasn't. That had sailed when she'd collapsed on her bedroom floor and told him what a horrible person she was. Did this one little text message mean that they were friends – would they be friends if she responded?

Mia bit her lip and silently typed out the most simple, neutral message she could think of. 'K.'

A/N: I was thinking of doing a holiday special, but I decided to do this instead. I hope you guys liked it. I f so, then please feel free to leave a review. Happy Holidays! ^_^


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